2016 New Hampshire Primary Results – Open Thread

The first official primary of the 2016 Presidential Election happens today in New Hampshire. Polls, for what they’re worth, continue to indicate that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are the leading contenders to take home top prize. The fight on the Republican side will be fierce for 2nd and 3rd place as it may determine the fate of whether some candidates remain in the race after tonight.

Latest updates throughout the day will appear here, newest at the top:

Update 5 – 11:27pm ET

That will do it for our updates tonight. See the latest post for videos of Sanders and Trump addressing their victories in New Hampshire. Full results updated tomorrow. Good night, folks!

Update 4 – 8:04pm ET

Sources are now calling the race in favor of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The question now on the Republican side is the battle for 2nd place. Results will continue updating regularly.

Update 3 – 7:00pm ET

It’s 7pm on the East Coast, most polls are now closed in New Hampshire. Still waiting until 8pm ET when all polls will be closed in the state.

Update 2 – 4:06pm ET

Very little news today other than candidates making the rounds and doing their best to seal the deal with voters as the hours tick down. The polls in New Hampshire are open until 7pm ET and we should start getting results pretty quickly after that. Here’s a few stories worth reading:

There are three small towns that voted at midnight. It’s a silly tradition and usually doesn’t yield much, but here are the results, via the New York Times:

Or, at least, the first results from the tiny New Hampshire towns — Dixville Notch, Millsfield and Hart’s Location — that practice the time-honored tradition of voting at midnight to claim the distinction of casting the election’s first primary ballots.

On the eve of New Hampshire’s presidential primaries, a new CNN Poll of Polls finds both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are holding on to substantial leads in their respective races, but each faces an opponent whose support is on the rise.

Sanders’ 54% to 40% advantage over Hillary Clinton is down slightly from a 55% to 37% lead in the previous Poll of Polls. No public polling has found Clinton in the lead in New Hampshire since November.

Trump tops the GOP field with 31%, well ahead of Marco Rubio’s 15%. Rubio has picked up four points since the previous New Hampshire Poll of Polls, the biggest change in the averages in the last week. Ted Cruz follows with 13%, John Kasich at 11% and Jeb Bush at 10%. This pack of four — Rubio, Cruz, Kasich and Bush — has been jockeying for second place in the state for some time. The fifth candidate often included in the group, Chris Christie, has generally seen his support dwindle, and now stands well behind, dropping two points in this week’s Poll of Polls to an average of 5%. Carly Fiorina ties Christie at 5% and Ben Carson rounds out the group with 3%.

But the overall wide margins aren’t an indicator that the political world can turn its attentions away from the Granite State just yet. All of the polls included in the Poll of Polls were completed prior to Saturday night’s Republican debate, however, and it remains to be seen how that will impact voters in the final days of the campaign.

It may be an interesting ride later tonight, especially given how wrong the polling was just over a week ago in Iowa. Could New Hampshire polls be suffering from a similar fate? Perhaps overplaying Trump’s support, or maybe underplaying it? We won’t know until the results come in later tonight.

Nate Ashworth is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for almost a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016.

If this is the first time you have heard this, you must not get out much. The press depicts him as unlikable, and certainly he is not as friendly as a politician or used car salesman, but if you watch a few videos of him answering questions from people who are 100% against him and really angry, I think you will be impressed with his ability to make friends. Here is one of many examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6cUDscjrNg&feature=share

Cruz is a Constitutionalist. You seem to fault him for making decisions based upon principles, but that is exactly what I find attractive about him. Cruz believes (as he stated in the discussion in the video) that no one should receive subsidies for anything at all. If ethanol is indeed a financial burden, as you suggest, under a Cruz Presidency it will disappear on its own as the free market is permitted to function properly. If, on the other hand, some individuals are willing to pay more for fuel that contains ethanol, they should be free to do so (a poor decision, I agree, but then, plenty of people are willing to pay tons extra for non-GMO foods – their money, their choice).

I notice that your original point was that even Cruz’ constituents hate him, but when I presented irrefutable evidence that he is extremely likable (and I am, BTW, one of his many constituents), you said the video confirms your point – which now seems to be that we should outlaw ethanol.

As for competence, very few people in the entire history of the United States have as good a record of arguing cases before the Supreme Court as does Cruz, and despite his lack of seniority, he is in the top four among current Senators in terms of getting his legislation passed through committee and getting it passed by that body. You are welcome to your own opinions, but you are not welcome to invent your own facts.

I will not confuse you with any more facts, because clearly your mind is made up and you are not interested in restoring the free market and limited government. Sad for you. I am happy that I believe in ideas which are bigger than myself.

If Americans were more informed and followed our history, this entire election would be about who will most reduce the power of our government. It would be about empowering the American people, the way our founding fathers intended when they enacted our constitution.

just because people believe, based on quotes from those that authored our constitution, that we were founded on Christian principles, does not mean that they advocate a Church ran state. Ted Cruz wants our nation to be, once again, ran by the people, not the government, or the church. If we continue to socialize our nation, we will follow the same path that every socialized country, in history, has followed and that’s a guarantee. We shoukl be trying to find our common ground, as Americans and stop the senseless bickoring. otherwise we just play right into the hands of those that are trying so hard to take away what freedoms we still have. Our current administration has put a great deal of effort into stripping us of our rights and ability to keep the government at bay. If we don’t make them start turning that fact around soon, it will be too late and debates like this will be moot. So why don’t we focus on facts and leave our feelings out of these discussions. If we do that, we are less likely to offend each other and more likely to come up with workable solutions. Whether I like a candidates personality or not, is irrelevant. I want to to know how they will reduce the power of the government and increase the power of the citizens.

In the video, Senator Cruz didn’t say he was going to push ethanol. He said he wanted the government out of the way, so that all energy sources could, equally, market their products on their own merits. That is the way a free market system is supposed to work. In response to your point, it was clearly proven wrong, in that video.

His constituents don’t hate him. He will get an overwhelming vote, in his favor, from his constituents. Much of our family are those constituents you refer to. He has a very consistent voting record. You may disagree with him, but you know how he will vote.

He did not say he won – he congratulated Trump and Kasich. But he did win FAR more votes than anyone who does not support him said was possible, which he claimed was a victory for “the grassroots.” The fact that he won any delegates at all in NH is quite a feat, and he did it while spending nearly far less money per vote than any of the other contenders, proving that it was a grassroots victory (and that he really is a fiscal conservative).

The crushing defeat of Hillary by near 22 points, and her near loss in Iowa (final results still disputed) sent chills down Slick Willy’s spine — for he sees his dream of occupying the White House again, and sauntering in the Oval Office (which he turned into the Oral Office) evaporating.

No wonder Bill is mad — he won’t get to make criminal deals again, while the onus this time around would on Hillary — thus, enriching himself as “First Lady” by the 100’s of millions, instead of just 10’s of millions from the phony Clinton Foundation.

Reason is prevailing, and The Criminal Clintons are done!

Now, if only Justice will prevail — all the Clintons will end up in Jail.

He can now go and skulk, running mafioso-style, the most anti-Constitutional State in USA — where the 2nd Amendment has been shredded to the point that law abiding citizens cannot even purchase antique or black-powder guns without a background check (even the ultra-liberal wackos in California have not gone this far)!